As we approach the final weekend of action in the New Jersey High School Boys Basketball Season in 2007-08, it’s time to start reflecting on things. Not just the standings, stats, players, and championships, but the feel good stories that made this season special. One of those stories was the South Amboy Guvs, and the enthusiasm this group created throughout the tiny enclave that is also known as “The Gateway To The Jersey Shore.”
The phenomenon was coined Guvmania by GMC Hoops since it had some similarities to the Blazermania that gripped Portland in 1977 when Bill Walton and the Trail Blazers won the NBA title. For the first time ever since the GMC was formed in 1985-86, the Governors, a team that has struggled with mediocrity through the years, won its first ever Gold Division crown, and made it to the GMCT Elite Eight. The way that the Guvs won their first division crown was memorable. Entering the contest against a red hot Dunellen team on February 5th with a chance to win the division outright with a victory, South Amboy fell behind by as many as thirteen points in the second half, and by seven points with 1:42 to play, rallied to win at the buzzer on a three pointer by Mark Simko that had all the Guvmaniacs led by John Zammitt’s little brother among others, pouring onto the court in jubilation. It was a moment straight from the ending of Hoosiers, a film that saw how a small school team had brought a whole town together en route to winning the Indiana State Championship.
With the closing of St. Peter’s High School at the end of the 2006-07 school year, and Dunellen’s program in somewhat of a transition thanks to the departure of many talented players the past several seasons, the Gold was the Guvs for the taking. South Amboy didn’t take the situation for granted either. During the previous off-season, the Guvs participated in the Spring, Summer, and Fall leagues at Rebounds in Neptune, and competed well in all of them. Despite a 2-2 start thanks to two non-conference losses to Bernards in their home opener, and to CJ Group I Semifinalist, Keyport before the Christmas holiday, the Guvs won 15 of its next 21 games to finish at 17-8 overall, and go undefeated in the GMC Gold. After the Guvs lost to crosstown rival, Cardinal McCarrick in the GMCT Quarterfinals, they battled Metuchen in the opening round of the 2008 Central Jersey Group I State Tournament, and in another memorable finish, rallied to defeat the Bulldogs in the game’s final minute to advance.
Mark Simko and Larry Lenahan are players that will be amongst the top in the GMC while Joey Charmello showed tremendous development this season. Steve Poltritzky also realized the potential he had as a freshman while Colin Krzyzanowski came up with big players and clutch baskets when the team needed them most. The senior guard’s father, George Krzyzanowski, announced late in the season that this would be his last. He couldn’t have picked a better way to go out.